42. Helen

On my way out the door, I noticed her old beat-up truck and headed in that direction. Out here in the country, so far away from city folk, no one bothers to lock their doors or take the key from the ignition, so I wasn't surprised to find it so when I opened the door to the truck.

I had to move fast, though, before she or anyone else realized and peeled out of there. I didn't breathe easily until I was well away from the house, and it was even longer before I stopped looking over my shoulder.

That feeling of calm once I was in the clear didn't last for very long though, not once my eyes fell on the envelope that I had thrown onto the passenger seat. I felt sick all over again but was still at a loss as to what to do.

Thankfully, I still had my phone, but when I tried calling my daughter, it was going straight to voicemail. It was only then that I realized I had no one else to call, no one that would pick up the phone anyway.

That nasty feeling grew in the pit of my stomach again, and I started crying the way I haven't since I was a young girl who had just realized that my life was shit. I remember that old bitch used to grumble about how Daddy was a good man and that I needed to be grateful for the things he did for me.

Right now, I'd give anything for a leaky roof over my head and a loaf of bread. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going; I had no destination in mind, so I pulled into the first parking lot I noticed because my breathing was becoming a bit choppy, and I felt like I was going to pass out behind the wheel.

Now, I was at the point where I was trying to figure out where I went wrong. How had things come to this? This couldn't have been an overnight thing, this had to have been planned in advance.

But when? Was it before or after that little bitch attacked us in the house? Maybe I should go to the station and make a report. I bet that rich husband of hers would pay good money to keep her name out of the papers.

Yeah, that's a route I can take. I didn't even know she was getting married to someone else; no one had said anything to me. I thought she was marrying that wimp, Denny, who wasn't going to be any trouble at all and wasn't necessarily someone I would've wanted for my daughter.

Sure, his family had some money, but there were much better catches in the area. I always wondered what the little bitch saw in him, but it was none of my business. Had he been someone better, I would've pushed Mitzie to the forefront to take her shot because there is no way I would let that bitch do better than my kid.

Maybe that's why she'd kept the whole thing a secret from everybody until after they were married because she was afraid someone better would steal him from her. Maybe I could sell their story to the tabloids; I heard a long time ago that people made good money doing that.

I had options, and that made me feel better. I did have to spit out the window a time or two to get the taste of bleach out of my mouth. That old batty bitch had put bleach in my coffee like she was trying to kill me. I'll be sure to tell my Daddy as soon as he gets back.

He may not like me after the fight we had after my divorce when I had to tell him some hard truths about how much I always hated my life, but once I remind him of how Mama had died young and how I was raised without a Mama, something that always fills him with guilt, he'd forget all about being mad.

My phone kept going off every few seconds, but each time was worse than the last when I looked. Everyone was talking about Alyssa and her new husband, as well as the fact that they had bought that big old house that everyone around these parts had been drooling over for generations.

"That bitch don't deserve none of that." Of all the things that had befallen me of late, her success was the one that got to me the most. I hate her as much as I hate her mother. I could never get either of them to show even an ounce of envy over the fact that I had taken Corbin from them.

I'd wanted to see them suffer, to see the hurt in them, but over all these years, neither the mother nor the daughter had ever given me that. It used to enrage me the way the little bitch would look at me as if looking through me. Her attitude was one of the reasons I could never forget where I came from.

Even after her brothers all went away, I was still able to go only so far with dealing with her because I knew they would show up at my door otherwise, and since I couldn't harm her any other way, I made sure Corbin was never there for her again. He had to take my daughter to all those father-daughter fancy shindigs whether he wanted to or not.

I'd made sure my daughter got to go to the same school, wear the same stuff and get invited to everything Alyssa did. That all came to an end when she got into a fancy school that my kid couldn't attend for college and then I lost what little grip I had on her.

She'd gone radio silent right away, cutting off her father and me; not that we had any kind of relationship before that, but at least I used to be able to get little snippets of her life here and there. But once she went away to college it was as if we never existed.

I know for a fact that she never called her Dad because I used to check his phone. There was no communication between the two of them for years, and then the rest of their families on both sides were very protective of her like she was something special.

No one ever knew anything about how she was doing and such until she graduated from college with her fancy degree and went right into that high-paying job. No doubt she'd slept her way into that job, just like she'd fooled this rich man into marrying her.

I never trusted the bitch because she looked too much like her mother. All they had going for them were their looks and old family money that they didn't have to work for. My daughter and I were just as pretty, and we deserved to have the same kind of life.

But now everyone seems to be coming out of the woodwork with their own opinions about me and my daughter. I'm still trying to figure out who this Rhoda person is who seems to know all of my business. I wonder if she's the one who gave Corbin the information about my affairs?

But how did she get those pictures and the screenshots of our shared messages? Some of those pictures went back years, but I'd only just started seeing that name. Not only was she sending this stuff to Corbin but she was sharing it all over town with people I wanted to think highly of me.

No wonder no one wanted to lend a helping hand and all those women who had once been my friends just a few short weeks ago had blocked me and were now acting as if they didn't know me.

My phone went off and almost scared me to death. I answered sharply and felt my blood pressure rise. Hello Helen, are you having fun yet? Just in case you're wondering, this is Alyssa. I just wanted to let you know that everything that has been happening to you is my doing, and this is just the beginning."

"You little bitch…"

"And by the way, Mom and Dad are getting back together. You wasted fifteen years of your life for a man who never wanted you or your daughter. But I guess you didn't miss him in your bed since you slept with everything that wasn't nailed down."

"It was you."

"Damn straight, it was me. You took my childhood; now, I've taken the rest of your life. I told you to get the hell out of my town; you should've listened. But since you decided to stay here, you can reap what you sowed."

"What did you do, you little bitch? If you think I'm gonna let you get away with this…"

"You don't scare me. You're an old, broke bitch, who no one likes. Your reputation is in the toilet, and now everyone knows what you really are."

"By the way, how did you like those fleas? Are you still itching?" Just the mention of them made that shit start up again.

"I'll tell everyone."

"And no one will believe you. Because you're a known liar and a thief. Did you see what those women you tried so hard to fit in with have to say about you?"

"You were never accepted, and you never will be. I used to listen to those women talk about you, and my Mom, the saint that she is, would take them to task for speaking ill about you, but what did you do? You tried to drag both her name and mine through the mud. Now that shit is coming back to you. If you don't leave, I won't stop. I don't want to see your face around these parts again."

"You can't do anything to me. I'm still your father's wife."

"Oh, please. What wife? You're the side bitch who fell on the first available dick in order to raise your status. You're not the first of your kind, and you won't be the last. But unlike some who have more sense, you won't end up with anything."

"That prenup you signed will make sure of it, and even if you should by some miracle get some money out of my Dad, I'll make it disappear the same way I made all the money in your bank accounts disappear. And yes, even your hidden accounts, I found them and bled them all dry. Now go fuck yourself."

She hung up the phone while I was still screaming. I grabbed my purse to look for my bank card and get the number to call. There was no way she could've known about my safety net. No way she or anyone else could've known that for years; I'd been stealing from Corbin for a rainy day.

There has to be something I could do since she's admitted it, right? She couldn't just get away with this. And what did she mean by saying she was responsible for everything that had happened? Was she the one who sent those fleas to the house?

I wish I had kept the box they had been delivered in; there had to be some kind of evidence somewhere. But the box was long gone, and so was the house. My beautiful house, which was the envy of everyone was now little more than rubble.

And Corbin and Gigi, back together again? That can't be; I won't let that happen. I started up the old clunker and gunned it out of the parking lot, headed for Gigi's mansion. Even though my home was bigger, hers still had more class since it had been built back in the day before they started building houses using cardboard.

It didn't matter, though, because mine was bigger and flashier than her old-ass Victorian mansion. My house was up to date with the latest amenities, though I knew most of the women down at the club lived in homes like hers. I just knew they were envious of me. That's why most of them were always doing some kind of renovation on their places, because they wanted to keep up with me.

In the beginning, things had gone my way. I was the new wife, and everyone had to look to me if they wanted to get close to my husband. I'd played that role for four years and made my mark. But then Gigi had come out of hiding and it was like everyone just gravitated back to her and left me behind.

I never forgave her for that, just like I never forgave her bitch of a daughter for always outshining mine. Now that bitch was claiming responsibility for everything that has been going on, it's not fair. It's not fair that my husband would go back to his bitch of an ex or that his daughter should be marrying rich while mine was behind bars.

I didn't work this hard all these years to end up like this. If I go there and find him with her, I'll run them both over. I was so mad I almost missed the turnoff. I straightened up and drove down the driveway like a bat outta hell.

I couldn't get close because three large dogs came out of nowhere, barking their fool heads off. Even though I was inside the truck with the windows halfway up, I still felt fear. I've always had a fear of dogs.

I tried laying on the horn but that only seemed to make them bark louder. I looked toward the house, but no one seemed to be there, and I didn't see Corbin's car, or any car for that matter.

What the hell am I thinking? He's supposed to be at work this time of day. I reversed back down the driveway, still mad as hell. There's no way I'm going to let this slide. Somebody has to pay for everything that has happened to me.

I had the shakes again, and my sweat was making my skin itch something awful, so I pulled into the first gas station I came to away from the pumps and sat there trying to catch my breath and think of a plan. There had to be something I could do to press charges against Alyssa. She'd confessed, after all.

I was about to reach for my phone again when I heard sirens pull into the gas station parking lot behind me. I didn't pay it any mind because what could they want with me. So, when I heard the voice come over the loudspeaker asking someone to step out of the car, I didn't think it had anything to do with me.

It was only when I looked around and realized that I was the only one here that things started to get cloudy. The cops were behind me. There were three cars, and they were all standing in the open doorways of their cars, guns drawn. "What the hell?"

"Step out of the vehicle with your hands over your head." I rushed to do as they said, cussing that old bitch in my mind. No doubt she'd called and reported the truck stolen. As soon as I get through whatever this is, I'm going to go plant my foot in her ass.

"Helen Archer?"

"Yes, what's going on? I borrowed this truck from my Daddy."

"Put your hands behind your back. You're under arrest for the murder of Violet Carter." I tried looking over my shoulder at him, but he was being rough, so I turned back around.

"Violet? She's not dead; she was alive when I left." What the hell is going on? I now realize why on TV people never shut up once they've been read their rights. It's because they want their innocence to be heard. I know that's why I kept screaming at them even as I was carted off and put in the back of the cruiser.

MITZIE

I knew when I came here that I was going to have to fuck him for a place to stay, but I didn't mind. It's not like it was the first time we'd fucked or anything, but usually, I was the one with the upper hand. I knew that he felt honored to have me in his bed because of where I came from and where he was in life.

I'd always used that to my advantage just the way my Mama had taught me. So, even though I liked him well enough, I never forgot that I was better than him and he was okay to fuck, but not to take home to Mama.

But now the tide had turned, and I needed him more than he needed me. "Hey, why don't you light up another one?" We'd spent the night into the early morning getting high and fucking like bunnies. There was nothing else to do right now besides that anyway, and after my stint in jail, I needed to feel alive.

"Why don't you try this?" I opened my mouth, and he put one of those pretty colored pills on my tongue. I closed my mouth and let it dissolve before taking a hit off the joint he passed to me. It wasn't long before I felt that tingly feeling again, so when he knelt next to my head with his dick bobbing in the wind, I just grinned and grabbed it, pulling it into my mouth.

I looked up at him with my mouth full of his cock and smiled. It was too big to fit, but what I couldn't get with my mouth, my hand took care of. I was humming with excitement by the time he turned me around in the bed and drove into me from behind.

I forgot all my worries while he pounded into me and just let myself go and enjoyed the moment. I'd lost count of how many times this was now and didn't really care. That's the good thing about getting high; it keeps me from worrying about the small things.

I didn't really care about my life's many twists and turns within the last few weeks. Not like I did before I got high last night. Now all I wanted was to get high, get fucked, rinse and repeat.

When he mentioned getting his friends together for a party later, it sounded like a plan to me. We'd partied with his people before, and it was always a blast. This is just what I needed to take my mind off of things.

"Give me another one."

"You sure?"

"Oh yeah!" He sent his dick deeper into me when he reached over to the nightstand to get me another pill, which I sucked down hard before letting him put his tongue in my mouth.

My pussy felt full and satisfied the harder he fucked me, something that would've hurt like hell without the drug, and I just knelt there and let him pound my pussy until I was satisfied. The great thing about molly is that it makes me want to fuck forever. In the grips of my high, cock was all that mattered.

When he came, I was still not satisfied and I let him know. He just laughed and called me a greedy bitch before telling me to wait until later. In a little lull, after I went to the bathroom and came back, I decided to call my friend Lacey. She likes a good party as well, and she's the only other person in this town I know who hates Alyssa almost as much as I do.

In fact, we'd bonded over how much we both hated her, each of us for our own reasons. In the midst of my high, I can easily admit that I was jealous of my stepsister, that she had made my life a living hell because I could never measure up, not even in my mother's eyes, a woman who hated her more than anything.

And Lacey, I knew, hated her because her own sister preferred Alyssa's company to hers. That was a stupid ass reason to hate someone, but who was I to judge? Lacey is probably the only one in this town willing to associate with me at this point.

She was a few years younger than me, but not much. And I knew she liked these parties almost as much as I did, so when I called and she answered, I felt a little less alone.

As soon as the high wore off, I was back to feeling sullen and depressed, so I kept going, chasing that feeling of euphoria, and the highs and lows carried me through the day. When I wasn't having sex and popping another pill or lighting up a joint that had been laced with embalming fluid, of all things, I was thinking about my life and how fucked up it was.

There was so much I had wanted to do, things that did not involve my mother's one-sided feud with Alyssa and her mother. Once I was old enough to realize what she'd been doing all my life, pitting me against someone I barely knew and only saw a few times a month, I tried to pull away from that mess, but there was no pulling back.

Helen had been at it for years, and I admit that there was a time when I was right there with her. I hated that everyone loved Alyssa, that our shared grandparents, well, my step-grandparents anyway, wanted nothing to do with me while they were always bending over backward to spoil her.

It didn't help that Helen was always in my ear, pushing me to be better than her. It didn't matter that Alyssa was smarter, prettier and more well-loved than I was, all things I had no way of changing. Mom would get increasingly volatile each time Alyssa achieved something that I didn't. So, of course I hated her, and still do. It's because of her that my childhood was so fucked up.

"Yo, your phone's been going off for the last ten minutes; you gonna get that?" I hadn't even heard it because I was so lost in my own head. I left the bed naked as the day I was born and went to get it, only to wish I hadn't.

There was a whole thread in the group chat I had with my friends where someone had posted personal conversations I'd had about some of my friends. Oh shit! I didn't know it was possible to sober up this quickly, but the more I read, the more the fear overrode the high.

Some of those conversations went back years, but that's not what was bothering me. Somehow, this person knew about the fact that I had slept with most of my friends' boyfriends, the latest being not that long ago.

I didn't have to read to the end to know that there were going to be threats made against me. My knees gave out and I sat back down on the bed with my mind blank. If I didn't know better, I'd swear someone was out to get me.

First, the arrest and having to spend all that time in jail, and now this. Why am I always the one getting the short end of the stick? I didn't even know about Alyssa's marriage until yesterday when I heard people talking about it.

I guess the night she came to the house and lost her mind, she had caught Denny in bed with Lacey, which had set her off. Since I wasn't part of her friend group, I'd had to piece the story together, but I'd learned enough to know that she'd married some extremely wealthy man who had bought her that old mansion we'd both always been in love with.

Truth be known, it was because of her more than my own situation that I needed to get high. Now the fucking comparisons were going to start again, and once again, I'll get the shitty end of the stick because heaven forbid I be better than her at something.

How the fuck am I supposed to compete with this shit? Even my friends, in between cussing me out, were dragging up old hurts. People I once trusted were not calling me jealous, subpar, or not good enough.

It's like they had been waiting for the day to tell me how much I didn't fit in. But who had told them about my personal life? How did they know about Mom's affairs and the fact that she'd cheated with Corbin and taken him from his wife and kids?

Mom had always kept the story that Corbin had left Gigi for her alive, a story most people bought early on because Gigi had acted like she'd lost her mind; at least, that's what I'd overheard Mom say a time or two.

She'd claimed that Gigi had made her life a lot easier by showing everyone why Corbin left her. That's why a lot of people hadn't really blamed her for the divorce, but now it was all coming out in the open, and this was only going to make a bad situation worse.

Fuck this! I reached for two pills this time and took another joint that had already been rolled and waiting. Then I sent Lacey a new message because I couldn't remember if I had told her already. ‘Bring beer.'